A few months ago I was asked why I publish the source code to this website for all to see and honestly up until that point I hadn't really put that much thought into it. I had been inspired by seeing Xe Iaso linking the most recent git commit in each pages footer to do so myself and that required having a public repository; but none of my previous website repositories are public so why this one?
This website was originally generated using Tapestry a SSG of my own creation written in PHP but I wanted to give Netlify a go due to a recommendation by Cassidy Williams and because I had read a couple of articles by Andy Bell on using #11ty I decided to give it a go.
What was originally supposed to be a small experiment grew into what this website has become today and that is in no short part due to other programmers sharing their source code. Not just in tutorial articles and snippets shared on social media platforms but also in their full website repository being available for anyone to browse freely.
While not powered by 11ty I worked out how to add Wikilink functionality to 11ty from Maggie Appletons website source code, my last.fm integration came from the git repository of Andy Bells personal website and the source code from dozens of other 11ty powered websites helped me build PhotoGabble into the website it is today!
Realising how much I had been helped by having all these resources freely available to me crystallised the decision to not only make the source code of PhotoGabble open but to license it to endorse others building upon my work, to make it their own.
I get immense joy seeing others benefit from my work; be that a short code snippet helping someone complete a task they were stuck on or seeing people install one of the multiple 11ty plugins I have published it's a feeling akin to an artist seeing their work on display.
With that said you can imagine the sense of joy and fulfilment I felt when last November Aram Zucker-Scharff asked if it would be okay to use the source code of PhotoGabble as a base template for what would become their digital garden. In the words of Oscar Wilde: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
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Last week I read Copy other people's copywork by Charles Villard and through his words I will conclude this short post. "it’s okay to steal inspiration ... steal ideas. Steal patterns. Steal snippets. Learn what the code does and why it works. This kind of copywork will only help you grow."
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